Owner's 8-Count Part III: Class Schedule Feedback

The Owner’s 8-Count series was created as a response to your questions about the class schedule, recital dates, crowded waiting rooms, class sizes, parking and other dance studio related topics. The last two articles we published, Part I: Crowded Waiting Room Feedback and Part II: June Recital at Greeley Theater, have received great attention. We’re excited to share our strategies and solutions with you so you know what is going on behind the scenes and how we’re implementing your ideas to make our studios and your experience the best it can be.

PART III: Class Schedule Feedback

Q: Why can’t all my dancer’s classes all be on the schedule on the same day?

This is a great question and one that has many answers. Whether or not a dancer can (or should) fit all their classes onto the same night brings up a handful of scenarios. The amount of involvement that is needed from each family will depend on your dancer’s age and level. We make every effort to lay out a class schedule with you, the client, in mind. There are a number of things we take into account;

Level: Ballet 2

School schedules

Parent work hours

Ideal length of class for the age/ability (30 min vs. 90 min.)

Number of days per week a certain level should meet to benefit from the program

Dancers who take multiple classes and tracking them from one class to another

Utilizing our four studios rooms to the best of our ability

It can be a major jigsaw puzzle at times!

Between age 6-7, dancers start to attend their technique classes individually rather than a “combo” class that offers multiple techniques within one class (Tap, Ballet & Tumbling). A dancer that wants to take Ballet, Jazz, Tap and Hip-Hop will soon find themselves at the studio much more often than before. It is not ideal for young students to cram all these techniques into one night. We do our best to offer the Intro or Level 1 classes in blocks of time, usually allowing for 2-3 classes to be grouped together on one night (resulting in classes on two different nights). We also do not advise that young dancers take ALL the techniques offered for their level the first year they transition out of the combo classes. Slow and steady is good! Perhaps select 1-2 techniques to focus on and then add more classes down the road.

When a dancer reaches age 9-11, depending on their ability level and desires, classes may start to meet multiple times per week. This allows dancers to use repetition to benefit both their cognitive and motor skills to properly excel. Dancers will quickly see the increase in the physical, mental and artistic needs of Level 2+. We make every effort to have the Level 2 and 3 dancer’s classes on only two nights per week.

Q: Why do we change the class schedule every year?

Much like your family changes from year to year, so do your needs. Our studio family does the same thing. We are always actively observing our students and making adjustments in the hopes to help you thrive with us from year to year. Depending on your collective needs, we will create new levels, drop levels, merge levels and/or add multiple levels and times. Much like your dancer, we are always learning and growing!

What solutions can we offer to help you with the best class schedule?

Come talk to us! While we won’t be able to accommodate changes to the current class schedule, we’d love to know what issues you have run into so we can take them into account when we plan the next schedule. If we can make it work out we will!